Industrial processing of meat for human consumption aims to provide processed meat products that combine an appealing appearance and flavor with microbial safety and prolonged shelf-life. Consumers evaluate meat products on the basis of a number of sensory attributes. Color, juiciness, flavor, and tenderness are believed to represent the most relevant sensory attributes of processed meat products. Color is the first factor noticed by consumers and is therefore given much attention.
A number of FDA approved compounds are widely used for the curing of meat, including salt, nitrite, nitrate (certain types of meats), reductants, phosphates, sodium lactate, sodium diacetate, citric acid, and sodium bicarbonate. Most ingredients used for curing are restricted by food regulatory agencies such as the FDA.
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the foods they eat and the additives which are included therein. As a result of this increasing awareness, sales of foods labeled “natural” are increasing. Consequently, food manufacturers are looking to replace ‘artificial’ food additives by natural ingredients so as to achieve a ‘friendly label’. Also meat processors are looking for natural, friendly label alternatives that can replace artificial curing agents such as nitrate.
Vinegar is a well-known product that is widely used in domestic cooking as well as in industrially produced foodstuffs. When used as an ingredient in industrially produced foodstuffs, vinegar is usually listed on the label as “vinegar”, even though vinegar is mostly used as an acidulant.
For some food applications, such as in most processed meat products, the use of liquid vinegar is not an option. This is why powdered vinegars have been developed.
US 2010/0310738 describes a vinegar-derived food additive composition which is a buffering food additive comprising vinegar-derived acetate, such as sodium acetate or potassium acetate, and vinegar and has a pH of about 7.0 to about 10.0. The buffering food additive is produced by treating vinegar with a basic neutralizing agent, such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, or potassium bicarbonate, to produce a partially-neutralized vinegar with a pH of below about 7.0. The partially neutralized vinegar is dried, such as by evaporation and heat, to produce an acetate, such as sodium acetate or potassium acetate. Vinegar is added back to the acetate to produce a buffering food additive having a pH of about 7.0 to about 10.0.
US 2010/031078 further describes a method of preparing a food additive from vinegar comprising:                a) treating vinegar with a basic neutralizing agent to partially neutralize the vinegar to a pH of below about 7.0;        b) evaporating water from and drying the product of step (a) to produce an acetate; and        c) adding vinegar to the acetate of step (b) to produce a vinegar-acetate dry powder or solution having a pH of about 4.5 to a pH of about 10.0.        